Frederick the Great post links

[cahn]

More Frederick the Great (henceforth "Fritz") and surrounding spinoffs history! Clearly my purpose in life is now revealed: it is to encourage mildred_of_midgard and selenak to talk to me about Frederick the Great and associated/tangential European history. I am having such a great time here! Collating some links in this post:

* selenak's post on Frederick the Great as a TV show with associated fandom; a great place to start for the general history

* I have given up indexing all posts, here is the tag of discussion posts. Someday when I actually have time maybe I'll do a "best of."


Some links that have come up in the course of this discussion (and which I am putting here partially for my own benefit because in particular I haven't had time to watch the movies because still mainlining Nirvana in Fire):
Fritz' sister Wilhelmine's tell-all tabloidy memoirs (English translation); this is Part I; the text options have been imperfectly OCR'd so be aware of that (NOTE 11-6-19: THIS IS A BOWDLERIZED TEXT, I WILL COME BACK WITH A BETTER LINK)
Part II of Wilhelmine's memoirs (English translation)
A dramatization of Frederick the Great's story, English subtitles
Mein Name ist Bach, Movie of Frederick the Great and J.S. Bach, with subtitles Some discussion of the subtitles in the thread here (also scroll down)
2017 miniseries about Maria Theresia, with subtitles and better translation of one scene in comments

ETA:
Miniseries of Peter the Great, IN ENGLISH, apparently reasonably historically solid
ETA 10-22-19
Website with letters from and to Wilhelmine during her 1754/1755 journey through France and Italy, as well as a few letters about Wilhelmine, in the original French, in a German translation, and in facsimile
University of Trier site where the full works of Friedrich in the original French and German have been transcribed, digitized, and uploaded:
30 volumes of writings and personal correspondence
46 volumes of political correspondence
Fritz and Wilhelmine's correspondence (vol 27_1)
ETA 10-28-19
Der Thronfolger (German, no subtitles; explanation of action in the comment here)
ETA 11-6-19
Memoirs of Stanisław August Poniatowski, dual Polish and French translation
ETA 1-14-20
Our Royal Librarian Mildred has collated some documentation, including google translate versions of the Trier letters above (see the "Correspondence" folder)!

Comments

Re: Royal obsessions

[cahn]

FW, woooooow. I must admit that my immediate reaction was to think "I bet he's not tall at all" even before you said he wasn't :)

FW would have the giants paraded through his bedroom when he was sick, to make him feel better.

omg FW

So I was interested enough in the flute question to do a bit of googling myself. I found this was kinda interesting:
http://www.fluteland.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=637&sid=baf0ee6fa761822ef273dc49d875e714&start=15
"It is impossible to generalize about removable dentures and blowing a flute. Typically a denture patient loses the alveolar bone over time. (This is the horseshoe shaped bone onto which the denture rests and is pasted.) The degree of resorption or bone loss is different in everyone depending on how long they have been without their natural teeth. Trumpet players have problems with upper dentures. Flutists have more of a problem with the lower denture. I can say that the lower alveolar bone is much more prone to resorption (or loss) than the upper. When we apply pressure to the lower lip with a flute we must rely on the stability of whatever it is behind the lower lip be it natural teeth, bridgework or a denture. If the alveolar bone is minimal or gone entirely, the denture "floats" and will move when pressure is applied with a flute. A flutist with this problem may undergo: 1. Alveolar ridge augmentation surgery.
2. Dental implants
3. Fixed Bridgework
This treatment plan will render a natural result allow you to perform natural flute licks."

So I can imagine that whatever was wrong with Fritz' teeth was in such a way that he actually couldn't play, or perhaps he would have been able to retrain in a perfect world but didn't know how (in the same thread are people who notice that their tone or technique has gone really wonky and aren't sure how to fix it). Gosh, I sympathize, though. I had RSI problems and had to put my violin away for a number of years, and it really sucked. And I didn't like it nearly as much as Fritz liked his flute.

(Man, it sounds even worse to play flute than violin. At least with violin you only have to worry about your fingers. Flute you have to worry about fingers AND mouth AND teeth!)

Re: Royal obsessions

[mildred_of_midgard]

FW, woooooow. I must admit that my immediate reaction was to think "I bet he's not tall at all" even before you said he wasn't :)

So predictable, FW!

So I can imagine that whatever was wrong with Fritz' teeth was in such a way that he actually couldn't play, or perhaps he would have been able to retrain in a perfect world but didn't know how (in the same thread are people who notice that their tone or technique has gone really wonky and aren't sure how to fix it).

That all makes sense. I was just thinking, George Washington had false teeth, why couldn't Fritz get false teeth and keep playing? But yeah, I can see where it could be much more complicated than that. Poor baby. Losing your teeth, having to put up with 18th century medical treatment for all your health problems, and then not being able to play the flute.

I had RSI problems and had to put my violin away for a number of years, and it really sucked. And I didn't like it nearly as much as Fritz liked his flute.

Oh, no, that sucks. I'm so sorry. :-((( If it weren't for Kindle and the internet in general, I don't know how I'd survive with my can't-read-books back problem.

Re: Royal obsessions

[mildred_of_midgard]

Flipping through one of my newly acquired hard copy Fritz bios that I can't read, I am reminded that by this age, he had gout not only in his toes (where he'd been plagued by gout flare-ups since at least his forties) but also his fingers, which I'm sure affected his flute-playing even if he could still write voluminously most days. So between the asthma, the gout, and the teeth falling out, yeah, he couldn't play any more. :-(( I'm also sure having these problems (plus many, many others) *and* not being able to play the flute did his mood no good either.

Tangentially, this same bio (Asprey) gives the first plausible explanation of the peppercorns & mustard in the coffee that I've seen: they were meant to be medicinal. I had this total AHA and also DUH moment when I read that. Fritz always spent a lot of time thinking about his physical problems, had strong opinions on medical matters, and frequently tried to apply his own cures to himself (and suggest them to other people), irrespective of professional opinions. Spicing up his coffee (especially since he liked spicy food in general) makes so much sense as an 18th century medical treatment I can't believe this is the first time I've encountered this explanation. (It's kind of tragicomic watching biographer after biographer give Fritz a hard time about thinking he knew better than his doctors, and occasionally be forced to admit that while he wasn't often right, he wasn't necessarily better off listening to the professionals either, because this was the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.)

I would still like to see documentary evidence that it was intended medicinally, but I always want to see documentary evidence, and I rarely get it, which is why biographies are basically novels in my mind.

Anyway, it makes enough sense that I guess I have to stop teasing him about his absurd tastes and possible bravado (which I did affectionately and admiringly, as someone with some absurd tastes and occasional bravado myself).